At least 25 killed in fresh CAR fighting, says UN

At least 25 people have been killed, six of them police, in two days of violence around the town of Bambari in the troubled Central African Republic, the UN force MINUSCA has said.

Six police and four civilians were killed in an ambush by armed men on Friday morning, while on Thursday, 15 people died in fighting on the town’s outskirts between former Muslim Seleka rebels and Christian vigilante groups known as “anti-balaka” (anti-machete), it said in a statement on Saturday.

MINUSCA condemned the violence around the central town of Bambari and appealed to the two militia groups behind the clashes to respond to an invitation by President Faustin-Archange Touadera for talks.

There was no immediate comment from the government or the militias.

The latest fighting comes after the mostly Muslim Seleka rebels killed more than 40 people during two attacks in the same region earlier this month.